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Anthony Janiec (in) a Lion MAN next season

Anthony Janiec (in) a Lion MAN next season

18. November 2014The first confirmed driver-and-team pairing for the 2015 season of the FIA European Truck Racing Championship is now public: accomplished Frenchman Anthony Janiec will take over the cockpit of one of the Lyon-based Lion Truck Racing team’s MAN trucks. There were clear indications of this happening when Lion invited a few drivers for a test in Nogaro immediately after the 2014 finale in Le Mans about four weeks ago. Janiec not only set the best times but also – evidently now – made the finest impression. Eighth in the overall standings in this last season, Janiec can look back on many years of truck racing experience. And there’s that other particular — he is a Gaul after all!
For the last couple of years German Steffi Halm has been the standard-bearer for the French outfit. The second truck was driven by Kazakh Artur Ardavichus, while Spaniard Javier Mariezcurrena and Belgian Jean-Pierre Blaise alternated in the cockpit of the third. Apart from Janiec the team hasn’t confirmed any other driver yet, though it has acknowledged that Halm, Ardavichus, and Blaise are still in the reckoning. Mariezcurrena meanwhile has announced the end of his truck racing career. And even Blaise will probably only be available as a guest driver, having dissolved his own outfit last year because of professional preoccupations.
Janiec, who turns 30 in barely four weeks, had this last season established a team of his own with German truck race legend Ellen Lohr. The entire Janiec family is afflicted, if you will, with the truckrace virus — Anthony’s father and sister have for many years contested the French championship, and Jennifer has also driven a few races in the FIA ETRC. For seven years in a row Anthony raced in a Renault for the French Team 14, achieving his best finish in the 2012 championship with ninth place, before completing the 2014 season in eighth with his own team.

Impressions:

Anthony Janiec (in) a Lion MAN next season
Anthony Janiec (in) a Lion MAN next season